


Roommates and Suitors

by Gleefullymacabre



Series: Love Letters [2]
Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 21:42:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8073697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gleefullymacabre/pseuds/Gleefullymacabre
Summary: Sequel to Love Letters. Kendi finds a roommate. Sunny is uncertain. Dawn plans a party. Thane doesn't. Stephanie gets invited. Roland pretends nothing has changed. Bog and Marianne decide to elope.





	

The bus pulled away.  Kendi checked the printed directions to be sure she had the right stop.  She walked the few steps to the end of the block and turned down the street lined by large houses with manicured lawns.  She watched the house numbers increase as she neared the address, apprehension growing with every Lexus she passed.

There was no way someone in this neighborhood would need to rent a room. Not for an amount in her price range.  She swallowed the lump in her throat. The next bus would not arrive for twenty minutes; it was worth a visit, just in case.

The directions led her to a neat, two-story house of grey stone with white trim.  The stone walkway meandered through a trimmed lawn dotted with colorful beds of flowers. A matching driveway disappeared behind the house, presumably leading to a garage and a collection of high-priced vehicles.

Kendi brushed nervous hands down the front of dress. The cuffs of the sleeves were a little frayed at her wrists, but the polyester did not wrinkle, and the green leafy pattern had not yet faded.  She could not do anything about her cheap denim loafers or cracked vinyl purse, but she would look presentable as the star of a prank video.

She folded the directions and tucked the pages into her purse as she approached the white double-doors.  Gold handles glinted in the sunlight.  A half-circle of stained glass flowers provided the only color on the doorstep.  With one deep breath, she pressed the doorbell.

*~*~*~*~*

Kendi closed the French doors leading to the balcony (an honest-to-God balcony!) in the larger of two available rooms, nearly getting tangled in diaphanous layers of white curtains.  The entire house resembled layout in a magazine, although the cream fabrics, maple woods, and pink and orange accents provided a cozy atmosphere rather than sterile.

The last two weeks had discouraged Kendi.  All the places she had seen so far were in nicer locations than her current shared apartment, but the people left much to be desired.  Odd rules such as no animal products permitted – this by a landlord wearing snakeskin boots. One who promised to lock the doors at 10 pm sharp, allowing no one to leave until 8am the following morning.  Each roommate seemed stranger than the last.  Dawn, in contrast, seemed sane. Blasé, even, when it came to household rules.

The only resident perched on a chair with sherbet-striped cushions and smiled at her phone.  This visit was to check out potential roommates as much as the rooms.  “You said it comes furnished?” Kendi asked.  This drew Dawn’s attention from the screen, though her sunny smile did not dim.

“Both do. Though you can change anything you want. They were meant to be guest rooms, but I never have any guests.”

This “guest room” had to be twice the square footage of her current bedroom, not including the walk-in closet.  The daybed looked as plush as the carpet felt, with an embroidered comforter and a dozen throw pillows in varied patterns of pink and orange.

Kendi opened the door to the attached bathroom. “Do you ever throw parties here or anything?”  Was that marble?!

“I get enough of that at my dad’s place.  Sunny comes over sometimes, but never stays the night.”

Kendi shuffled through the list of questions she and her therapist had prepared to weed out roommates.  “Can I put a lock on the door?”

Dawn quirked her head, puzzled, but only shrugged.  “Sure.  Why not?”

A quiet household with some guarantee of privacy, a much shorter bus commute, in an area where police might actually show up if called.  There had to be a catch.

“What is it you do?”

“The official title is ‘Event Planner’.”  Dawn mimed the quotation marks.  “I organize trade shows and seminars and stuff for my dad’s company.”

Maybe she was looking for a live-in maid. Still, best to confirm the suspicion.  “How do you handle the chores?” 

“Just keep the clutter picked up.”  Dawn stood and tucked her phone into the back pocket of her (dark wash, not faded) jeans.  “Housekeepers come by every week to do the deep cleaning.”

Kendi found herself stunned to silence at the expected answer.  Perhaps Dawn had trouble with messy roommates in the past.  “What about yard work?”  The backyard alone could qualify as a separate lot.

“Landscapers.  It’s all included,” Dawn added. “In the, you know. Rent.”

“Right…” Kendi decided the yellow roses on the dresser were real after all, though hoped the vase was not crystal.  “So, is the rent the same for either room?”  The ad had quoted a price a little higher than her budget allowed, but with the location and amenities, and if the smaller room was any cheaper…

_If it seems too good to be true, it probably is_ , her therapist had cautioned.  Kendi forced down her excitement.  If the other room cost the same, she could not afford it, and that was that.

“It’s the same for both rooms,” Dawn answered slowly.  “You can turn one into an office or a craft room if you have a hobby.”

Kendi locked her jaw to keep it from dropping.  The neighboring room was smaller with no attached bathroom and lacked a balcony, but the large windows provided plenty of sunlight.  With the bed and dresser removed, there would be more than enough room for a little desk.

She had liked calligraphy once.  She had a small collection of cheap ink and flimsy pens, and had checked out books on Sanskrit and the Odia alphabet.  She even kept a journal using a fountain pen lending her most idle thoughts some gravitas.

Journals were easily found, and neat handwriting easily read.  After catching snooping relatives too many times, she stopped keeping a journal at all, reserving her careful script for her skin and her soulmate.  Then Brian had complained that he did not want her writing on his arm every day, that her hobby irritated his skin. He had been lying, of course.  Her words had never touched his skin.

She had stopped again after meeting Keith, her second and last boyfriend.  Why waste her hobby on a soulmate she may never meet when she had someone who loved her without a soul bond?

And then she arrived home one evening to find a handful of her belongings sitting in the hall outside of their apartment.  After banging on the door for half an hour, pleading like a fool for an explanation, another girl had opened the door.  Kendi could see Keith on the sofa, his back to her, letting this new woman, his _soulmate_ , break up with Kendi for him.

Heartbroken, humiliated, and with most of her things left behind, she had taken the first room-share she could find.  Overpriced, crawling with vermin, and with a thieving, lying roommate.  It had taken months to save the funds and the energy to even look for something better.

Dawn and her house more than qualified as better.

_If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!_

“How soon could I move in?”


End file.
